Crusty Cassette

text by Nicki Riddle

Read the Full Story

Chris's Big Az was chicken.

No. Not that! His sandwich.

This was to have been a reprise of Doug's Karma, the ride on which Tom Witt completed his first century--well first 110 miler. We had enjoyed breakfast in Tekoe. Chris had liked his hasbrowns and gravy so much that he made the trip on his own awhile ago.

I told Chris I'd join him this Saturday by starting at his place in Moscow. I knew that I'd be in for more than a century. And I knew that it would have to be fast. I tried to get others to join us to give me a little air, but only Roy Stephens showed up. Roy's been struggling with back pain and wanted to test his ability to do a long ride--he's signed up for the Chafe 150 in Sandpoint a couple of weeks from now.

Chris and I had already begun rolling when my cell phone rang. Roy was late and wanted to know where we were. We waited at Rosauers and then the three of us rode into the wind not-for-the-last-time-today on the Chipman trail to Pullman. Outside of Pullman on 27, Roy said he'd gotten his answer. He wouldn't be able to ride Chafe and would have to turn around today. That left me to catch up to Chris.

Shades of Chasing Cruel. The summer Largent rode across the country, I chased Chris all over the Palouse. Chris likes to ride with a group. But Chris will never ride with the group. He's always hanging off the rear or off a hundred yards out front. Doesn't like to be drafted and won't draft himself.

When I woke at 5 the wind was tossing the branches of the tree outside my window. I didn't like the wind and rain I saw in the forecast for the Palouse, but I made the commitment just the same. In Moscow, the wind was pretty still but by the time Roy had joined us it was significant. Didn't keep us from holding 17 mph to Pullman, though.

Chris ate an egg in a muffin at the grocery in Palouse. I should have watched his food intake a bit more carefully.

Chris seemed content to let me lead much of the way to Oaksdale, though once I saw him in my mirror sitting up, going handsfree. He pulled something out of a shirt pocket and played with it in front of him for all the world as though he were rolling a cigarette. Could he be toking back there?

I didn't think so and when he went handsfree in front of me later I challenged him. Claimed he was eating pop tarts. Yeah, right.

The sky remained mostly cloudy but the west wind gave us a great push from Oaksdale to Tekoe. But we hadn't counted on labor day weekend closing the cafe. There'd be no hasbrowns and gravy for Chris today. The grocery was open and doing a fair business. We settled on sandwhiches from the case and microwaved them. They were called Big Az, no kidding. Mine was beef. Chris's was chicken.

Chris is a purist. He's out for the miles and makes no bones about it. Couldn't talk him in to making the Farmington loop even though it would likely have saved us the joy of fighting that wind from Tekoe back to Oaksdale. I had time for only one picture today. We were riding hard even into the wind. The 19 mph avserage my GPS showed in Tekoe was terribly close to 18 by the time we were back in Oaskdale.

I offered to take a pull, but Chris refused. "I won't draft," he said. I was more than happy to drop in behind him and mostly he let me. He even dropped behind me on a climb leaving Garfield and I saw him handsfree again.

We knew the ride from Palouse to Pullman was going to be ugly. It tends westward and has one or two tough hills. When we got to the first one, I dropped from the top chain ring to the middle, looking for a spinning gear. Chris, didn't. He stood and swept away up the hill. I had to let him go. For a time I could see his white Blue Monkey jersey and then he wss gone.

Dropped. Damn. But I had expected it. Chris generally gets anxious towards the end of the day and heads off. Today, however, his computer had skipped a couple of miles. He needed me, or my GPS. As I spun up the last big hill about 4 miles out of Pullman, I saw him waiting. He didn't wait. Once he saw me, he hopped on and sped away not allowing me even a moment's break. And once again I was chasing Cruel all the way through Pullman until finally he stopped at the ball parks. He wanted to know what my century time was. 5:30 I told him. He was upset. His was more. It wasn't of course. Though he was ignoring the 2 miles he had lost, he had forgotten that his timer had kept running. His century was still faster than mine. That seemed to have appeased him enough that he let me stay with him on the 9 miles of tail wind back to Moscow.

My GPS reported 117 miles at 18 mph at Chris's door. Chris did reveal his dark, ugly, secret. He may have been eating pop tarts,but once before Palouse and once after, he had been popping power gels to "get my legs to get me back to Pullman."

So you heard it here first. Chris's Big Az had a performance enhancement assist. The shame of cycling visited upon us right here on the Palouse.

For the ride of it Corrie

The Tour de Lentil starts at the ball fields in Pullman, rides west to a church and north to Colfax then across to Palouse and back. Most of those roads were seal coated recently. No loose gravel, a bit rough, black, shiny, no stripes yet, but reasonably smooth. Far better than loose gravel though they kept posting Loose Gravel signs all over everywhere--makes a fellow cautious in the corners.

Not cautious enough. No we didn't go down, but we roded pretty hard. My legs are toast and were getting that way well before Palouse where Allison and Ted rolled in casually. We we pulled out of Palouse, there they were and a few college fellows. So we pace lined for a few miles. Dave was first to drop off. Those lazy boys, er, recumbents have a bit of trouble with the hills.

I knew when Ted swung around to pull that the end was near. Still it was fun to cruise along at 23 mph for a while.

but we'd pushed the pace several times already today and Doug and I were doing a century.

Still, a great day to be on a bike in the Palouse. 85 degrees this afternoon, but cold enough I put on the leg and arm warmers this mornikng in Uniontown.

TRCers: Dave Tibbals, Doug, Corrie, Loreen (we have not seen her for a couple of years), Chris--did you finish first this year?